Lyndsey2


	CORAL CAM LESSON PLANS CREATED BY THE TEACHER ADVISORY GROUP


	Coral Cam Web Site


	WHO EATS WHOM IN A BERMUDIAN CORAL REEF? Lyndsey Chell


		OBJECTIVE: 1.Students will be able to find out about feeding relationships on a coral reef. 2.Students wil be able to develop a food chain and food web using coral reef animals and plants

		AGE GROUP: Making a food chain is suitable for students age 8years +. The construction of a food web is higher level and could be aimed at 10-14 years depending on ability.

		BACKGROUND

		On the Bermudian coral reefs all the living things feed on each other. The energy obtained from sunlight moves from plants such as phytoplankton and algae to the first animal and onto the second and so on. However animals do not just feed on one type of food, they feed on a variety. In a place like a coral reef there are many different feeding relationships which are connected together to form a food web. The Coral Website contains information about just a few common animals and plants that are found on a Bermudian coral reef. This list contains some of them that can be used by students to make a food chain and food web.

		Plants and Algae Algal turf Jointed seaweed Phytoplankton (plant plankton) Protista Zooplankton (animal plankton) Animals Corals Finger coral Common Sea Fan Brain Coral Sponge Purple sea urchin Squid Fish Spot light parrotfish Silver porgy Surgeon fish Yellow fin grouper Blue tang Nassau grouper Four eyed Buterfly fish Barracuda

		Instructions for Teachers

		Activity 1: Making a food chain 1.Each student will need to start with a horizontal row of 4 squares either downloaded from the website if they are going to write in their own food chain OR if the facility is available the student can wordprocess their organisms directly onto the grid on the website. 2.The student needs to choose a plant to start their food chain and either writes or wordprocesses the name into box 1.All the information can be found in the plants and animals section in the website. If all the feeding relationships are not available then teachers may find the Who is eating whom on a Bermudan coral reef? Coral polyps eat zooplankton. Zooplankton eat phytoplankton Spotlight parrotfish, Surgeonfish, Blue tang and Four eyed butterfly fish eat algae Barracuda eat fish Nassau groupers and Silver porgies eat squid and fish fry Squid eat young fish called fish fry Fish fry eat zooplankton 3.Next the student chooses a suitable herbivore from the website that would feed on that plant and puts its name into the second box. Then a primary carnivore is chosen that feeds on the herbivore and its name entered into the third box. Finally a secondary carnivore that feeds on the carnivore is selected and placed in the last box. 4.The Coral food chain is now completed by the student drawing in arrows showing the flow of energy from the plant up through the chain to the top carnivore. 5.It should look somethng like this. Activity 2: Making a food web 1.Once the students have made their food chain they can be reminded that animals eat a variety of foods. The information from the Coral website and ‘ Who is eating whom?' will help them make a food web, which they can then put into a grid downloaded from this website or word processed directly. The finished food web should look something like this.



		2.Occasionally something goes wrong with a food web and a link is damaged. The students need to imagine what will happen to the food web if some of the links are missing e.g (a)What will happen to the number of spotlight parrotfish if the Silver porgies are killed suddenly by a disease? (b)What will happen to the numbers of Silver porgies if the numbers of squid suddenly decrease?

	© BBSR and TCOE Coral Web Site Team 1999 http://www.coexploration.org/bbsr/coral Funded by a grant from the Goldman Foundation